Remember the moment Robinson Crusoe finds the footprint in the sand? That might give you a sense of the amazement you’ll feel when you gaze down on an actual dinosaur footprint. If you live around Rye you won’t have far to go to find one.
Running along the beach from Pett Level, east towards Hastings, the sandstone and clay cliff that towers over the shoreline is a vertical map of time. Formed 145 million years ago from river deposits – when Britain was still connected to the European landmass and over half of it was under water – the cliff rises a sheer 100 feet. Its base layer dates to the Berriasian Age, 145 million years ago. Above it in the stratigraphy is the Valanginian clay formation, a mere 140 million years old.
Halfway up the cliff face is a cave that archaeologists, from their discovery of flint tools inside it, believe was carved out and used as a vantage point by Stone Age hunters to watch for game moving through what is now a submerged forest – or the remains of one.
But today the cliff is not the primary focus for Ken Brooks, chair of Hastings and District Geological Society and guide for us 19 welly-booted beachcombers. It’s the shoreline and what we might find on it.
Brooks, a former Hastings teacher, is a lively 77 year old rock hound. He spots a shard at his feet, extracts his hammer and shatters the stone into small bits. “See?” He points to a few black spots in one of the pieces. “If it’s black and shiny, it’s a fossil.”
If you thought geologists were a dull and boring lot, a few minutes with Brooks will change your mind forever. The oldest of our group by a few years, he set a cracking pace as we headed own the beach as if there wasn’t a moment to lose. “Every rock can tell a story,” he says. “Geology teaches you their language.”
Photos by Sandy Spencer